>> So is the "correct" thing to do to replace

>> 	for f in ${LIST}; do
>> 	  echo $f
>> 	done

Any shell which does not handle the above for LIST='' is broken.
Note that with LIST=""

	for f in $LIST; do echo $f; done

is NOT the same as

	for f in ; do echo $f; done

The first is syntactically correct, and any shell that vomits should
be fixed.  Unless you are talking about:

	eval "for f in $LIST; do echo $f; done"

In which case an empty LIST will result in a syntax error, but that's
a different ball game.

Don't "fix" (or rather frob) the script, fix the shell or replace it.

--sjg